My Mental Nightmare
by rotten gremlin
Summary: Ken goes to a mental hospital after losing his best friend, and not speaking in months, find out what happens.


disclaimer: i do not own any of these characters

Tears rolled down Ken's cheeks as he stood in front of the white building, which he was to call home. No one spoke as his parents gave him their final hugs, but that's how it had been for the past couple months. When Davis passed away at the age of 16, Ken shut down. Davis and Ken had become practically brothers, seeing each other everyday, and then it happened. Ken took the news hard and locked himself in his room for three days without eating. Finally his parents got him to eat, but he hadn't said one word to them or anyone since he found out the news. Even at Davis funeral, Ken stood there eyes red with tears, lifelessly staring at the coffin that his best friend lied in. The other dig destined tried to help him but he acted as if they weren't there, especially Kari.

"Hello Ken, I'm doctor Fowler, I'll be you psychiatrist. If you need anything you can ask one of the women in the green, or if you have any question you can ask them or me. Do you have questions, Ken? Ken . "

He stared at him as if he didn't hear a word he said

" ... okay well lets get you into your new home, and I'll come back and have your parents sign some paperwork."

They walked up a staircase that was freshly paint a light blue color into a orange hallway. A little further down the hallway it broke off into two sections but Ken couldn't read what was written on the walls, all he could see was the Dr. pressing a button with his thumb, while he swiped a card through the scanner. The door buzzed open and Ken found himself walking into a big white room.

" This is the activity room, you will probably spend most of your time here and in your room. You get one phone call a day, 15 minutes long, and you get one shower a day. Everyone shares the shower, and you get 10 minutes, usually the first 5 people get the warmest showers. Over to your left are the girls rooms, and on the right are the boys rooms. We don't usually encourage co-ed, but you will have groups together. The daily schedule is on the board, it's updated every shift. This will be your room, your alone right now, but you will most likely have a roommate by the end of weekend. Do you have questions . Of course not, right now is room time, that's where you sit in your room, and the next activity is group. I'll be meeting with you probably sometime tonight or tomorrow, Good luck Kenny boy. "

Ken shuddered when the Dr. called him that. He hadn't been called that since his brother Sam died when he was young. I guess you could say that's when his depression became, but it wasn't until after Davis died that Ken was diagnosed with anything. Ken let out a sigh and pulled his bag toward his room.

"Wait, young man, you can't have that in your room just yet, we need to check it."

He turned to look at the nurse who pulled his bag out of his hands and took it over to the nurses station. He walked to his room and pushed open the door. There were two beds, one was pushed against the wall near the door, the other was pushed near the window. There were four windows and at the end of the forth was a blue drape. Next to the windows was a cabinet, which was where he was to put his belongings. Further over was a door which led to the bathroom. The room wasn't that small, but wasn't big either, it was about half the size of his room at home, but he didn't need space, just a bed. He walked over to it and laid face first into the pillow. It was uncomfortable, the bed was very stiff and the pillow was made of plastic. But Ken was so depressed he didn't care, he just cried. He cried his entire heart out into the pillow and eventually cried himself to sleep.

" Ken it's time for group ... get up, let's go "

He forced himself to put his feet on the floor as he looked for a clock to see how long he had slept for. As he walked to the activity room, he thought he saw a girl that looked familiar but it left his mind when he sat down.

"Everyone settle down, I know you just got out of your rooms and your all hyper but we need to keep some order. Everyone we have a couple new people today, but I'll get more into that later. Let me go over our schedule, we have group for an hour, then we have dinner. After dinner, we have in room time again, yeah I know no one likes in room time but we have to deal with it. Then we have some free time, maybe a movie or something, snack, and then it's off to bed for all of you . "

Ken didn't pay any attention to the man speaking, he was still trying to find a clock but there wasn't any. But since groups seemed to be an hour long he figured he had slept for about a half hour. He lifted his head up and stared at the one room on the girls side, the door was shut. One of the rules here was you couldn't shut your doors, but he didn't bother to worry about it, wasn't his concern what she did.

Ken's mind then began to drift off. He could remember the smell of Davis's feet in the summer when he would run and play soccer then take his shoes off in Ken's house. Ken would always make fun of Davis on how bad Davis's feet smelt, but Davis would always laugh and tell Ken one day Ken's would smell worse. Tears formed in Ken's eyes and he stared at his shoeless feet wondering if his feet would ever smell that bad when suddenly he heard a hoarse voice.

"Ken are you listening to me ... "

Ken looked up to see everyone staring at him.

"Ken now that we have your attention again, would you like to tell us what brought you here? "

Ken put his head back down and ignored him

"Ken? Okay, would you like to tell us your age? Where your from? Is this your first time being to a hospital? "

Still staring at the floor the man turned to the next the person and began introducing them, but one the kids spoke up -

"Sir, should we worry about Ken, he isn't talking. Does it mean were too late for him? Are they going to have to, you know?"

This caught Ken's interest, you know, what did that mean.

"Well, Ken just got here so we will give him time. If he doesn't talk then we might have to take those measures"

"What measures?" A little girl asked

"Um . well . if you don't follow the rules here we must take action. You see that room at the end of the hallway, that's the quiet room, it's padded so you can't hurt yourself. But if you don't cooperate with us that's where we send you."

Everyone stared at one another, Ken didn't. His eyes still fixed on the floor. What was he to care about some room they use to stick kids in when they don't talk, it's probably more comfortable then his bed anyway.

After a few more introductions, the man conducting the group, who later turned out to be named Arie, turned the topic over.

"Okay today's group is going to be on depression, how many of you are depressed?"

Most of the people in the groups hands were raised

"Very good, can anyone tell me what depression is?

A boy probably a little older then Ken spoke, " Depression is a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies."

"Excellent, now depression is something you don't live with forever, it will go away. How many of you want it to go away?"

Ken drifted again, he heard this all before. His therapist would tell him in time things would heal, but they had just seemed to get worse. Now he was in a place where everyone was crazy and he couldn't escape other than drift off in group.

The rest of the night seemed to pass by slowly for Ken, at dinner he didn't eat much if anything, he picked at his salad, but that's about it. In room time he slept, snack he didn't eat, and free time he sat in the corner alone. He wasn't even aware they were watching a movie until Arie came up to him.

"Don't you want to watch the movie?"

Ken didn't look at him, he kept his eyes on his hands.

"Ken look, I don't know what you've been through, but I can help, I just need you to tell me what it is I can do"  
silence

"All right, but if you need to talk I'm here, but for now it's time for bed, maybe tomorrow will be better for you. The quicker you help yourself, the quicker you can go home."

Home, that's where Ken wanted to be, in his warm bed with music blasting crying himself to sleep. Thinking of Davis, thinking of the good times they had, thinking of what happened. He began to remember Davis, the day it happened the day he No, Ken shook his head, he wouldn't think of what happened. It was too painful.

"Alright everyone it's time for bed, everyone have a nice night."

Ken dragged himself slowly into bed but as he was leaving Arie called him one last time for the night -

"Ken, if you need anything, just remember what I said."

He nodded, he'll remember, he always remembers, but talking, that's something he wasn't going to do.


End file.
